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ANECD Newsletter #3

ANECD News

ANECD annual meeting took place in Amman, Jordan, November 13-15, 2017. The meeting was attended by 30 participants coming from ministries, childhood councils, non-governmental organizations, regional and international agencies, and academia, as well as individual experts, from Arab and foreign countries. In addition to reviewing the strategic orientations of the network, the meeting worked on advancing the programmatic activities and consolidating the membership and governance of the network. The general assembly of the network and the executive committee were formed with clear functions for each in this transitional period. Moreover, the meeting witnessed the formation of four working committees on the following themes: 1) Networking, 2) Research, 3) Working with Refugees, and 4) EC Workforce.

The World Health Organization (WHO), Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO) in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa and the Arab Network for Early Childhood Care and Development (ANECD), is planning to hold a “Regional consultative meeting on early childhood development with a focus on nurturing care in the early years”, in Amman, Jordan, on 13 and 14 March 2018.

The objectives of this meeting are to:

Review and provide feedback on the draft global framework for Nurturing Care for Child

Development; and

Share evidence of why it is important to invest in early childhood development with

a particular focus on nurturing care in the first 1000 days.

The meeting will be supported by the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, the ECD Action Network (ECDAN), and other partners to provide opportunities for country leadership and engagement, as well as engagement from all other relevant stakeholders in the nurturing care framework. The process includes face-to-face and virtual consultations enabling all those who wish to participate to raise their voice. For more information about THE Nurturing Care Framework:

Partners News

The World Health Organization published the report of the meeting that took place in Geneva between 31 July and 2 August 2017 on “Operationalizing Nurturing Care”. The report contains a core package of interventions to support nurturing care, modes of effective intervention delivery, in addition to a nurturing care framework and guidelines for the way forward. These topics are presented through the results of the group work discussions or interventions in the meeting. You can find the complete report through this link:

Funding opportunities

The Education Quality and Learning for All (EQUAL) Global Network is based at New York University‘s Global TIES for Children Center and New York University Abu Dhabi. EQUAL represents the education network of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

EQUAL engages researchers, research organizations, and education NGOs to support countries in achieving The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 and its targets. EQUAL supports SDG4 (‘ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’) through development of researcher networks, research-practice partnerships, scholars’ capacity and leadership development, and provision of research seed grants for early-career scholars.

Other News

Following his visit to Iraq in January 2018, Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF Regional Director stated that at least one of four children in Iraq is impacted by conflict and poverty. In 2017, 270 children were killed, while many were robbed of their childhood and forced to fight on the frontlines. Some will bear the physical and psychological scars for life. On behalf of millions of children and caregivers, UNICEF appeals to authorities in Iraq and the international community to:

Optimizing Assessment for All (OAA) is a new project at the Center for Universal Education at Brookings that seeks to change perceptions of educational assessment and to encourage better assessment, teaching, and learning of 21st century skills. The Center is working with regional organizations in Africa and Asia to convene education policymakers and other key stakeholders from several countries to discuss assessment activities, priorities, and best practices.

Partners Resources

The Ministry of Education and Higher Education in Palestine launched a “Manual for Kindergarten Teachers” in 2017. The manual includes two parts. The first is a professional guide for teachers including strategies and guidelines to plan the classroom environment and support professional teaching practices in the class. As for the second part, it includes four units with educational objectives and activities to implement with children. The Manual also contains an appendix with relevant references and resources. For more, please visit http://www.mohe.ps/ACCD

The Arab Council for Childhood and Development published in January 2018 Issue 31 of Khotwa (Step), a magazine specialized in Early Childhood. The theme of this issue is “Children and Disabilities”. In addition to relevant articles, this issue includes an illustrated story for children, “The secret of butterflies’ colors”.

Since nurturing care is getting global attention, Bernard Van Leer posted a blog in January 2018 sharing thoughts on the role of the education sector aligning with health and child protection in the early years with six recommendations:

Reinforce the fact that education begins at birth

Emphasize social-emotional as well as cognitive, language and other areas of development

Assure good health practices and adequate nutrition as central to any EC program

Include family engagement as a core part of a quality EC program

Partner with social protection programs

Integrated children with special needs and outreach to the most vulnerable.

Other Resources

In January 2018, UNICEF issued a report, “Children under attack: Born into war, 1000 days of lost childhood”. The report considers Yemen as one of the worst places in the world to be a child, and illustrates the extent and depth of children’s suffering there between 2015 and 2017.